Five members of a family were on Friday awarded death sentence for killing a teenaged couple for honour in 2010 with a Delhi court saying the "savage nature" of the crime has shocked the judicial conscience and falls in the category of "rarest of the rare cases".

Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar Singhal handed down death sentence to the five persons, who had mercilessly, tortured and then electrocuted their daughter and her lover as they were opposed to her plans to get married to the boy belonging to a Scheduled Caste.

"Keeping in view the medical evidence and the state in which the bodies of the deceased person were found, it is obvious that most heinous type of murders were committed in the present case. Both the deceased were electrocuted by the convict.

"The offence was not only inhuman and barbaric but the savage nature of the crime has shocked the judicial conscience. In the case in hand, cold blooded, brutal murders through electrocution have been committed even as there was no provocation on behalf of the victims, making it a rarest of rare case, which calls for no punishment other than capital punishment, ASJ Singhal said.

"Such cruel and barbaric acts cannot be allowed to take place in developed metropolitan cities," he added.

The case pertains to the honour killing of Yogesh, 20, and Asha, 19.

The duo were in love and had disclosed to their parents that they intended to get married.

Asha's family, engaged in the business of selling vegetables, had reservations over the boy's caste and in June 2010, her parents Suraj and Maya, along with his uncle Om Prakash, his wife Khushboo and Asha's cousin Sanjeev, killed the couple by beating and electrocuting them.

While deploring the manner in which the murders were committed, the court rejected their plea for leniency saying the fact that convicts belonged to a poor family or have minor children cannot be a mitigating factor keeping in view the manner in which the offense was committed.

TERMS OF USE: The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).